Spain frees Civil Guards who stormed parliament

By
WITH ANALYSIS FROM MONITOR CORRESPONDENTS AROUND THE WORLD,
EDITED BY HILARY DEVRIES /
April 20, 1981

Madrid

Fifty-one paramilitary Civil Guards who were arrested after storming the Spanish parliament in an attempted coup in February have been released, military sources reported. They said the decision by Madrid's captain general, Guillermo Quintana Lacaci, was part of traditional military amnesty measures for Easter week. Of the 288 guards who held deputies hostage, 209 had already been released and 17 officers indicted.

Meanwhile, Spain's Basque country celebrated its National Day Sunday amid continuing violence. The military wing of ETA (Basque Homeland and Liberty) claimed responsibility for a bomb Saturday night which wrecked a transformer belonging to a power company building a controversial nuclear plant near Bilbao.